


A Quiet Evening

by slightlycrazygamer (Verunme)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cat, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Domestic Fluff, Knitting Lance, Minor Illness, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 13:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9274559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verunme/pseuds/slightlycrazygamer
Summary: A short one-shot of Lance taking care of his sick little brother. Pure fluff, no plot.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to daddyroboarm on Tumblr for proofreading and writing the bits of dialogue in Spanish.

“And don’t forget to give Carlos his…”

“- syrup, I know mami. You’ve told me six times today.”

“So, you two will be okay? I won’t be back until eleven.”

“I’m almost eighteen, I can handle Carlos for one evening.”

Lance couldn’t help but smirk at his mother’s endless worrying. four children later, and she still worried her second son couldn’t handle himself and his younger brother for a few hours. A few hasty goodbyes, and he finally managed to get rid of her nagging, for a time.

Sighing in relief, Lance placed his cellphone on the counter. Leaning back a bit, he glanced at his charge in the living room. The toddler was sitting on the floor, lazily playing with a few Lego blocks. Lance was conflicted at the view. Some relief taken from the fact that, for once in his life, the usually energetic child wasn’t running around breaking every fragile object his tiny hands could touch, and a pang of guilt because of that relief. Carlos did look quite miserable, his bleary eyes and slow, uncoordinated movements signs of his illness.

Trying his best, goofy grin, Lance strode back into the living room, and slumped down on the floor right in front of his brother. He extended his right arm to give a short, rough pet to Jellybrain, the household cat whose actual name hadn’t been used in years. The old mass of fluffy fur was lying in the sunlight, enjoying the single warm spot in the house in the cold winter months.

“Dime hermanito, what are you building?” Lance quipped, still smiling.

“Castle.” Carlos replied in a whisper.

Lance looked at the pile of blocks on the hardwood floor and finally managed to recognize a wobbly tower made of blocks of many, many colors. It looked awful, of course, but in the endearing way any child’s creation did.

“Want me to help you?” he asked, grabbing a yellow brick.

“You can build the other tower if you want.” Carlos replied, still toying with the front wall.”

Lance scooted around the castle, sitting next to the toddler, and got to work. He made sure to build his own structure similar to the original (that is, unstable and kind of wobbly) so they’d match. He couldn’t help but steal fond glances at Carlos, being the adorable kid he was.

It wasn’t long before he noticed Carlos was falling asleep then jolting awake when he started slipping. Supressing a chuckle, Lance got up, then slipped his hands under his brother’s arms. Lifting him up and resting him on his hip, Lance gave him a little peck on the cheek.

“Ven aca hermanito, time for the syrup, and then bed.”

“I’m not tired!” Carlos protested weakly.

“Yeah, sure Jan.” Lance deadpanned, not caring that his brother wouldn’t pick up on his meme.

Carrying the boy back into the kitchen, Lance headed towards the island, where he’d left his brother’s medicine. He sat the toddler on the counter and retrieved a spoon from the nearby drawer. He carefully read the label and poured the required amount of liquid in the spoon, one hand resting on his brother’s stomach to make sure he didn’t fall off.

“Ok, open up.”

On any other day, in any other situation, Lance would’ve expected a massive fight at this precise moment. However, Carlos was bordering on falling dead asleep, and obeyed without much protest.

Lance picked him up again, and headed to Carlos’ bedroom. Jellybrain mewled as they passed by the living room door, and that suddenly inspired Lance. Shifting his brother in his hold so he could hold him with only one arm, Lance made his way to his bedroom to get his supplies. He wasn’t even halfway there that he had to suddenly shift his arms to keep the boy upright when he went slack with sleep.

Jellybrain lazily got up when, a few minutes later, Lance shooed him away with his foot as he somehow balanced Carlos, the supplies and the rocking chair he was pulling in his arms. Setting it in the sunlight but at an angle that would shield his eyes from the sun.

Careful not to wake up his brother, Lance finally managed to sit himself down. Carlos instinctively sidled up against his side, resting his head close to Lance’s sternum. Holding him in place with his left arm, Lance used his right to search through the box he’d placed on the small table next to the chair, and pulled out his current work in progress. He’d started work on that sweater a few weeks prior. Holding it up to Carlo’s body, he confirmed the sizing (that is, intentionally way too large so it’d last a while) was correct.

He felt kind of bad that he’d chosen Carlos as the “sibling who gets knitted clothing for Christmas” this year simply because he procrastinated too long and he was the smallest and thus fastest to work on.

He’d barely started knitting when he felt the fuzzy paws of Jellybrain land on his thighs. He watched him curl up over his lap, head hidden under his paws and tail stretched over Carlos’ adorably small feet.

Freeing his right hand by holding everything else in his left, Lance stroked the cat a few time. He purred in response and swished his tail, causing Carlos to shift a bit in his sleep.

Sitting there, feeling the warmth of the two small bodies and the light of the setting sun chasing the cold of the winter out of his body, Lance was content.

Much, much later in the evening, his mother would come home, and find him, cheek pressed into Carlos’ hair, the cat long gone who knows where and the sweater on the floor, having slipped out of his hands after he himself and fallen asleep.


End file.
